The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

pr stunts

Back in the day when I worked at places where writers were allowed to receive free promotional crap (mostly DVDs and vodka… so much bad vodka) from PR companies, I got all manner of bizarre stuff, the strangest probably being a box that allegedly contained a few of Troy Polamalu’s signature curly locks. But if I received a tiny unmarked safe with a note to “check your voicemail,” and which beeped when I tried to open it, I might have gotten freaked out enough to call the police. [More]

ConAgra is apologizing after getting unexpected backlash after it invited food bloggers to what they thought was a meal prepared by celebrity chef George Duran, host of “Ultimate Cake Off” on TLC. After they had eaten, it was revealed that they’d actually been served food that came from the frozen section of the supermarket, Marie Callender’s Three Meat and Four Cheese Lasagna, and Razzleberry Pie. And hidden cameras were rolling the whole time. [More]

The PR outfit that publicizes the Rock Band video game franchise settled with the Federal Trade Commission, which caught agency employees posing as customers to post positive reviews on the iTunes App store. [More]

Here’s an interesting promotion: for every 100,000 junk emails sent to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com, Chipotle will donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, which will help feed school kids with healthy junk-free recipes for lunch, instead of the usual prison cheese and high fructose corn syrup. [More]

The House of Representatives has passed what could become the first federal law against energy price gouging. Currently, several states have laws against said gouging, but the rigor of the enforcement is inconsistent at best.